IRIS login | Reed College home Volume 95, No. 2: June 2016
Rather than focusing on admissions strategies, encyclopedic listings, and summaries of colleges, Paul and Janet’s new college guide is instead a buyer’s guide. They aim to put buyers in a position to locate the best product (i.e., college program) to meet their needs. Areas of interest covered include standard subjects such as business, arts, health, tech, and environment, and also less frequently covered interests like faith, service academies, and equestrian. Small, offbeat majors such as turf management and video game design get page space, too, in this guide that does not delve equally into all subjects, but offers a useful entry into the daunting realm of college selection.
As a reference book, its success is not in the ease with which a reader can look up a given school and read all about it. In an age of college-finder web tools and other internet search options, one doesn’t need such coverage from a book. Rather, its usefulness is in coaching prospective students to think more deeply about what they really care about in order to find a school that will have the best environment for them, and helping them locate lesser-known, but goodquality college options. In this way, the book avoids the anxiety-inducing focus on what the Marthers call “the myth of college admission scarcity.” “If everyone believes that the most highly sought- after colleges are self-evidently the best for all, then of course there will be great demand for any book that purports to unlock the secrets known only to those with inside knowledge of highly selective admissions,” they contend.
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